The temperatures are heating up, and that can only mean one thing: it’s romance book season! The best romance books of May 2024 are the perfect matches for these increasingly sunny days.
The lineup of May 2024 romance books is exactly what you need to start summer right. We’ve got vibrant new titles from Christina Lauren, Cat Sebastian, and Jackie Lau. Vanessa Riley is launching a brand-new historical romance series. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg!
Bring a little love to your reading list this month. Check out our picks for the best romance books of May 2024 and see how many are on your TBR!
The Letters We Keep by Nisha Sharma
Release date: May 1
Read it if: You enjoy new-adult romance and mysteries of history. A pair of college students team up to solve the mystery behind a campus legend and a trove of abandoned letters.
Publisher’s synopsis:
It doesn’t take long for ambitious freshman and aspiring engineer Jessie Ahuja to learn about two university legends. One is the haunted history of Davidson Tower, where more than fifty years ago, two ill-fated lovers disappeared in a devastating fire. The other is Ravi Kumar, a privileged billionaire nepo baby who’s aggravatingly charming and occupying more brain space than Jessie has room for. Things change when a campus prank locks them both in the old tower’s ghostly library.
There, Jessie finds letters from the fabled lost lovers, forgotten in a hollowed-out copy of Persuasion. One by one, the letters suck Jessie and Ravi into a beguiling mystery and an achingly beautiful long-ago romance destined to go up in flames. It’s also drawing Jessie and Ravi―every bit as star-crossed―closer together. Can they overcome whatever fate has in store for them? Or are they just as doomed as the young lovers whose tragic end has become legend?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
Release date: May 7
Read it if: You prefer your romance with a little more angst than giggles. An annual just-for-the-summer fling might become something real, as a woman tries to help her BFF through a personal crisis.
Publisher’s synopsis: Lucy is the tourist vacationing at a beach house on Prince Edward Island. Felix is the local who shows her a very good time. The only problem: Lucy doesn’t know he’s her best friend’s younger brother. Lucy and Felix’s chemistry is unreal, but the list of reasons why they need to stay away from each other is long, and they vow to never repeat that electric night again.
It’s easier said than done.
Each year, Lucy escapes to PEI for a big breath of coastal air, fresh oysters and crisp vinho verde with her best friend, Bridget. Every visit begins with a long walk on the beach, beneath soaring red cliffs and a golden sun. And every visit, Lucy promises herself she won’t wind up in Felix’s bed. Again.
If Lucy can’t help being drawn to Felix, at least she’s always kept her heart out of it.
When Bridget suddenly flees Toronto a week before her wedding, Lucy drops everything to follow her to the island. Her mission is to help Bridget through her crisis and resist the one man she’s never been able to. But Felix’s sparkling eyes and flirty quips have been replaced with something new. And Lucy’s beginning to wonder just how safe her heart truly is.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian
Release date: May 7
Read it if: You love both sports romance and historical romances and wish they could overlap more. A 1960s pro baseballer falls for the reporter assigned to interview him, as they both struggle with their dreams.
Publisher’s synopsis: The 1960 baseball season is shaping up to be the worst year of Eddie O’Leary’s life. He can’t manage to hit the ball, his new teammates hate him, he’s living out of a suitcase, and he’s homesick. When the team’s owner orders him to give a bunch of interviews to some snobby reporter, he’s ready to call it quits. He can barely manage to behave himself for the length of a game, let alone an entire season. But he’s already on thin ice, so he has no choice but to agree.
Mark Bailey is not a sports reporter. He writes for the arts page, and these days he’s barely even managing to do that much. He’s had a rough year and just wants to be left alone in his too-empty apartment, mourning a partner he’d never been able to be public about. The last thing he needs is to spend a season writing about New York’s obnoxious new shortstop in a stunt to get the struggling newspaper more readers.
Isolated together within the crush of an anonymous city, these two lonely souls orbit each other as they slowly give in to the inevitable gravity of their attraction. But Mark has vowed that he’ll never be someone’s secret ever again, and Eddie can’t be out as a professional athlete. It’s just them against the world, and they’ll both have to decide if that’s enough.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Lavash at First Sight by Taleen Voskuni
Release date: May 7
Read it if: You love the idea of a sapphic Romeo-and-Juliet plot surrounding food rivalries. A pair of Armenian women hit it off, only to discover their families are fierce rivals in the food industry.
Publisher’s synopsis: Twenty-seven-year-old Nazeli “Ellie” Gregorian enjoys the prestige of her tech marketing job but is sick of the condescending Patagonia-clad tech bros, her micromanaging boss, and her ex-boyfriend, who she’s forced to work with every day. When Ellie’s lovingly overbearing parents ask her to attend PakCon—a food packaging conference in Chicago—to help promote their company and vie to win an ad slot in the Superbowl (no big deal), she’s eager for a brief change and a delicious distraction.
At the conference, she meets witty, devil-may-care Vanya Simonian. Ellie can’t believe how easy it is to talk to Vanya and how much they have in common—both Armenian! From the Bay Area! Whose families are into food! Their meet-cute is cut short, however, when Ellie’s parents recognize Vanya as the daughter of the owners of their greatest rival, whose mission (according to Ellie’s mother) is to whitewash and package Armenian food for the American health-food crowd.
Sworn as enemies, Ellie and Vanya must compete against each other under their suspicious parents’ scrutiny, all while their feelings for each other heat to sizzling temps.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
People in Glass Houses by Jayne Castle
Release date: May 7
Read it if: You love romantic suspense and futuristic settings. The lone survivor of a disastrous expedition meets a woman in search of her sister. Together, they might uncover the truth — or fall into even more danger.
Publisher’s synopsis: His name is Joshua Knight. Once a respected explorer, the press now calls him the Tarnished Knight. He took the fall for a disaster in the Underworld that destroyed his career. The devastating event occurred in the newly discovered sector known as Glass House—a maze of crystal that is rumored to conceal powerful Alien antiquities. The rest of the Hollister Expedition team disappeared and are presumed dead.
Whatever happened down in the tunnels scrambled Josh’s psychic senses and his memories, but he’s determined to uncover the truth. Labeled delusional and paranoid, he retreats to an abandoned mansion in the desert, a house filled with mirrors. Now a recluse, Josh spends his days trying to discover the secrets in the looking glasses that cover the walls. He knows he is running out of time.
Talented, ambitious crystal artist Molly Griffin is shocked to learn that the Tarnished Knight has been located. She drops everything and heads for the mansion to find Josh, confident she can help him regain control of his shattered senses. She has no choice—he is the key to finding her sister, Leona, a member of the vanished expedition team. Josh reluctantly allows her to stay one night but there are two rules. She must not go down into the basement, and she must not uncover the mirrors that have been draped.
But her only hope for finding her sister is to break the rules…
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Love, Lies, and Cherry Pie by Jackie Lau
Release date: May 7
Read it if: You can appreciate the dynamics of a well-meaning but exhausting, meddlesome family. A woman fake-dates the son of her parents’ friends to get them to stop messing with her life. Naturally, things get complicated, fast.
Publisher’s synopsis: Mark Chan this. Mark Chan that.
Writer and barista Emily Hung is tired of hearing about the great Mark Chan, the son of her parents’ friends. You’d think he single-handedly stopped climate change and ended child poverty from the way her mother raves about him. But in reality, he’s just a boring, sweater-vest-wearing engineer. When they’re forced together at Emily’s sister’s wedding, it’s obvious he thinks he’s too good for her.
But now that Emily is her family’s last single daughter, her mother is fixated on getting her married and she has her sights on Mark. There’s only one solution, clearly: convince Mark to be in a fake relationship with her long enough to put an end to her mom’s meddling. He reluctantly agrees.
Unfortunately, lying isn’t enough. Family friends keep popping up at their supposed dates—including a bubble tea shop and cake-decorating class—so they’ll have to spend more time together to make their relationship look real. With each fake date, though, Emily realizes that Mark’s not quite what she assumed. And maybe that argyle sweater isn’t so ugly after all…
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren
Release date: May 14
Read it if: You enjoy ways to bring the marriage of convenience trope into contemporary settings. Two polar opposites must pretend their on-paper marriage is real while at a society wedding in paradise.
Publisher’s synopsis: Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse. He has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Love at First Book by Jenn McKinlay
Release date: May 14
Read it if: You dream of moving to a small village with a quaint bookstore. A librarian travels to Ireland when her favorite author offers her a job. The only problem is, she has to deal with said author’s grumpy son.
Publisher’s synopsis: Emily Allen, a librarian on Martha’s Vineyard, has always dreamed of a life of travel and adventure. So when her favorite author, Siobhan Riordan, offers her a job in the Emerald Isle, Emily jumps at the opportunity. After all, Siobhan’s novels got Em through some of the darkest days of her existence.
Helping Siobhan write the final book in her acclaimed series—after a ten-year hiatus due to a scorching case of writer’s block—is a dream come true for Emily. If only she didn’t have to deal with Siobhan’s son, Kieran Murphy. He manages Siobhan’s bookstore, and the grouchy bookworm clearly doesn’t want Em around.
Emily persists, and spending her days bantering with the annoyingly handsome mercurial Irishman only makes her fall more deeply in love with the new life she’s built – and for the man who seems to soften toward her with every quip she throws at him. But when she discovers the reason for Kieran’s initial resistance, Em finds herself torn between helping Siobhan find closure with her series and her now undeniable feelings for Kier. As Siobhan’s novel progresses, Emily will have to decide if she’s truly ready to turn a new page and figure out what lies in the next chapter.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
A Gamble at Sunset by Vanessa Riley
Release date: May 21
Read it if: You loved the Hallmark Sense & Sensibility adaptation — Riley was the movie’s historical consultant! Regency romance gets a sparkling new entry with this tale of a wallflower, a composer, and a fake courtship.
Publisher’s synopsis: Georgina Wilcox, a wallflower with hidden musical talents, is furious when her reclusive older sister—the recently widowed Viscountess—refuses sorely needed help from the Duke of Torrance, the only gentleman who has shown kindness to the bereft Wilcox sisters. Georgina decides to get back at her sister and shock the Viscountess by kissing the first willing stranger she meets in the enchanting gardens of Anya House. Unfortunately, her sister is not the sole witness. A group of reporters and the ton’s leading gossips catch Georgina in a passionate embrace with a reticent composer, Lord Mark Sebastian.
The third son of an influential marquis, the tongue-tied Mark is determined to keep the scandal from ruining Georgina’s reputation and his own prospects of winning the celebrated Harlbert’s Prize for music. Under the guise of private voice lessons, the two embark on a daring gamble to fool the ton into believing that their feigned courtship is honorable while bolstering Georgina’s singing genius to captivate potential suitors. Sexist cartoons, family rivalries, and an upcoming ball test the fake couple’s resolve. Will their sudden fiery collaboration—and growing attraction—prove there’s nothing false about a first kiss and scandalously irresistible temptation?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Second Night Stand by Karelia Stetz-Waters & Fay Stetz-Waters
Release date: May 21
Read it if: You love opposites-attract dynamics and dance competitions. A prima ballerina and a burlesque dancer go toe-to-toe on a reality show. When something sparks between them, it’s more than just the prize on the line.
Publisher’s synopsis: Prima ballet dancer Lillian Jackson is all about control—on stage and in bed. Which is precisely why she keeps her hook-ups to one night, and one night only. No strings, no phone numbers, no scones in the morning. There’s no room for mistakes, especially now that her dance company’s survival depends entirely on winning a million-dollar cash prize in one of America’s biggest reality competitions. That is, until one night with a certain curvy, blue-haired siren changes everything . . .
As burlesque dancer “Blue Lenox,” Izzy Wells is the queen of on-stage seduction. Almost no one knows that she’s close to losing everything—her theater, her home, and her troupe—unless she wins this competition. Now she’s going toe-to-toe with a gorgeous ballerina in front of the world. The chemistry between them is hot, but even more distracting are the feelings they’re starting to develop. There’s no way Lillian can fit Izzy into her life, and Izzy knows better than to fall for someone who can’t put her first. But if they can make it through the show with their hearts and dreams intact, they just might win the biggest prize of all.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places by Claire Kann
Release date: May 21
Read it if: You like a lighter touch to your supernatural romances. A parapsychologist investigates a seemingly-cursed TV production and sparks a connection with a colleague. Unfortunately, the house itself might be jealous…
Publisher’s synopsis: Lucky Hart has a special affinity for the supernatural but almost no one takes parapsychology seriously. She’s estranged from her family, lost her friends, and has been rejected from graduate school. Twice. But her big break finally arrives when she gets insider info about a troubled production company. Every actor on their new show mysteriously quits after spending three nights inside Hennessee House, an old Victorian with a notorious reputation.
After scheming her way onto the show to investigate, Lucky meets Maverick Phillips and chemistry instantly crackles between them. He tempts her in ways no one ever has, challenging and supporting her, and making her finally feel seen. Their connection is so palpable everyone notices it–including Hennesee House.
Now Lucky and Maverick’s relationship has a challenger: the lonely, sentient house desperate for her undivided attention. As love begins to clash with career, Lucky refuses to choose one over the other because everyone deserves a happily ever after, even houses with haunted hearts. But when all her plans begin backfiring one-by-one, she realizes that if she wants to have it all? She’ll have to risk everything.
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
Release date: May 28
Read it if: You long for the simpler days of AOL messaging and no smartphones. A pair of NYC twentysomething form an unexpected bond across a summer of Friday afternoons.
Publisher’s synopsis: Summer 1999: Twentysomething Sawyer is striving to make it in New York. Between her assistant job in publishing, her secret dreams of becoming a writer, and her upcoming wedding to her college boyfriend, her is plate full. Only one She is facing an incredibly lonely summer as her fiancé has been spending longer and longer hours at work . . . with an all-too-close female colleague, Kendra.
When Kendra’s boyfriend, Nick, invites Sawyer to meet up and compare notes about their suspicions, the meeting goes awry. She finds Nick cocky and cynical, and he finds her stuck in her own head. But then Nick seeks out Sawyer online to apologize, and a friendship develops.
Soon, Sawyer’s lonely summer takes an unexpected turn. She and Nick begin an unofficial ritual—exploring New York City together every summer Friday. From hot dogs on the Staten Island Ferry and Sea Breezes in a muggy East Village bar to swimming at Coney Island, Sawyer feels seen by Nick in a way that surprises her. He pushes her to be braver. To ask for what she wants. Meanwhile, Sawyer draws Nick out of his hard shell, revealing a surprisingly vulnerable side. They both begin living for their Friday afternoons together.
But what happens when the summer is over?
Get it on Amazon or support your local bookstores through Bookshop.org.
